Manufacture of figured knit fabrics.



No. 698,499. Patenfed Apr. 29, I902. I

- E. A. HIRNER.

MANUFACTURE OF FIGUBE D KNIT FABRICS.

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. No. 698,499. Patented Apr. 29, I902. E. A. HIRNER.

MANUFACTURE OF FIGURED KNIT FABRICS.

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No. 698,499; Patented Apr. 29, I902.

E. A. HIBNER.

MANUFACTURE OF FIGUBED KNIT FABRICS.

(Application filed. Mar. 28, 1901.)

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NITED STATES PATENT rrrcE.

EMIL A. I-IIRNER, OF ALLENTOIVN, PENNSYLVANIA.

MANlJFAC-TURE OF FIGURED KNIT FABRICS.

$EEOIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 698,499, dated April 29, 1902.

' Application filed March 23, 1901. Serial No. 53,168. (No specimens.)

T0 aZZ whom it may concern.-

Be it known that 1,-EMIL AII-IIRNER, a citizen of the United States, residing at Allen town, in the county ofLehigh and State of Pennsylvania, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in the Manufacture of Figured Knit Fabrics, of which the following is a specification, reference being had to the accompanying drawings.

My invention relates to the art of figured knitting, and has for its object to obtain a figured effect by employing courses knit with difierent kinds of threads, producing horizontal stripes conibinedwith the production of a longitudinal projection of certain of the stripes at predetermined points. By the va rious combinationswhich are possible in the employment of horizontal stripes provided with these longitudinal projections an almost infinite number of pleasing and novel effects may be produced.

My invention applies generally to knit fabrics of any sort and to figured effects produced by the use of threads differing in. material, quality, thickness, or color; but for the purposes of description it will be convenient to specifically explain its application to the manufacture of hosiery knit from threads of different colors.

In the accompanying drawings, Figure 1 illustrates a stocking the leg portion of which has been knit according to my invention, so as to embody a number of different designs which may be produced by my invention; but it will be understood that, as has been stated, the variety of design which canbe produced is almost infinite and that what I have shown in the drawings is merely to be taken as illus trative of a few particular applications. Fig. 2 is a diagrammatic View of apiece of fabric knit from threads of two colors, enlarged snf-: ficiently to show the arrangement of the knit loops by which the figured effect is produced; and Fig. 3 is a similar view showing a difier ent arrangement'of the threads of the inter mediate courses.)

Referring to Fig. 2, it will be observed that it shows a piece of ordinary knitting, all except two of the horizontal courses of which are knit with white threads. Two courses (lettered aand h) are knit with black thread. Be tween these two black courses are four white courses 0 c c c. If the entire piece of fabric had been plain knitting, it would therefore exhibit nothing but two black horizontal stripes that there is produced along the same longitudinal series of loops a forward projection of the black stripe a and a backward projection of the black stripe b, and by the meeting of these two projections the effect produced to the eye is that of a longitudinal line or stripe joining the two horizontal stripes.

I will now describe the improvement in the art of knitting by which this fabric is produced. It may be made upon any ordinary circular-knitting machine. In Fig. 2 the projected loops (Z d are ten stitches apart. To effect this, every tenth needle of the machine must be so operated that after receiving the loops of the black course a it shall be prevented from knitting during the knitting of the four succeeding courses 0 cc 0. This may be accomplished by preventing these needles during the knitting of these four courses from rising far enough to throw the loops of the black course below their latches and returning them into line with the rest of the needles at a point either above or below the feed .ing -level.

The fabric of Fig. 2 has been made by throwing them in at a point above the feeding-level. Consequently the threads 0 c c c of the four succeedingconrses have all been laid in the hooks of theinactive needles without being interknit with each other. Whenthe work has progressed as far as the course b, these needles are again thrown into ordinary action and having taken within their hooks the loops ff from thread I) when drawn down by the knitting-cams shed simultaneously loopsd d and the 'four unknit white threads over their backs, thusinterlooping allfive threads with the loops f f. Thereafter these needles continue to knit, as do their fellows, and plain knitting is produced until it is desired to again reproduce the pattern, when the operation repeats itself. If instead of throwing these needles in at a point above the feeding-level they had been thrown in at a point below the feeding-level, the action and resulting fabric would have been the same, except that threads 0 c c 0 would not have been taken within the hooks of these needles, and consequently instead of being intcrlooped with loops ff these four threads would pass across straight behind loops ff and Z) Z). The resulting fabric is shown in Fig. 3.

It should be observed that Figs. 2 and 3 represent the fabric diagrammatically, and in order to make the stitches distinct to the eye the threads are made much too narrow in proportion to the size of the loops. In practice, with threads of normalthickness, no substantinl aperture is visible in the middle of loops d and loops f, and, furthermore, in'the fabric of Fig. 2 the top of loop (I, which is taut, lies in front of. the successive white threads and forms the face of the fabric, so that to the eye there is only visible a longitudinal black line or stripe connecting the two horizontal stripes.

It is impossible to enumerate all the variations to which this method of knitting lends itself. Imay,however,mentionsomeofthem.

The number of courses 0 c which succeed course a before loop cl is again knit in may vary according to the length of longitudinal projections desired. if threads at and b are fed to the machine under the same tension as the rest of the knitting, the extra tension thus thrown upon the loops (1 and fcauses a slight pulling together of the horizontal black stripes at these points,producing what may be termed a link or chain effect, as shown at K, Fig. 1, where the particular effect produced by the threads of Fig. 2 is illustrated. If thread Z'I instead of being a black thread is a white one, it ceases to form a stripe, although it nevertheless serves to project loops d of thread a. As a result this latter thread forms the stripe H of Fig. 1. If, on the other hand, the thread a is white and thread Z) black, there will be produced the effect shown at M, Fig. 1. By combining II and M back to back with a few courses of plain knitting between the effect shown at L, Fig. 1, is produced. The effect J is obtained by knitting two of the link or chain double stripes K K with a few courses of plain knitting of the color of the stripes in between. All of the effects thus described are produced on a machine which is adapted at proper intervals to withdraw every tenth needle from operation; but it is obvious that the intervals of the needles by which these longitudinal projections are formed may be varied at will. A number of such needles may be placed near together, succeeded by an interval in which no such needles are employed, thus producing a checkered or plaid pattern, and so on. It will. be observed, however,

that in all of these variations the same characteristic method of knitting is employed namely, the holding of a loop belonging to one course upon an inactive needle until one or more courses of thread of a different kind have passed by the needle, and then drawing forward this loop among the courses which succeed it by again throwing the needle into action after a predetermined period of inactivity.

Having thus described my invention, I claim- 1. The method of producing figured knitting, which consists in withholding from action certain predetermined needles, bearing loops of a thread of one kind, during the knitting of successive courses with thread of another kind, and upon the completion of a predetermined number of these courses, again throwing the inactive needles into operation, whereby the loops which they still carry from the first course are projected forward into the territory of the succeeding courses, substantially as described.

2. The method of producing figured knitting, which consists in withholding from action certain predetermined needles, bearing knitting-loops, during the knitting of a predetermined number of successive courses, and then knitting a course with a thread of a different kind during which the formerly inactive needles are again thrown into action, whereby the loops formed on these needles from the latter thread are drawn back into the territory of the preceding courses, substantially as described.

3. The method of producing figured knitting, which consists in withholding from action certain predetermined needles, bearing loops of thread of one kind, during the knitting of successive courses with thread of another kind, and upon the completion of a predetermined number of these courses, again throwing the inactive needles into operation, during the knitting of a succeeding course with the thread of the first kind, whereby the effect of a link or chain figure is produced, substantially as described.

4. Theherein-describedfiguredknitfabric, which contains courses of threads of different kinds, having certain of the loops of a course formed of one kind of thread drawn forward over one or more intervening courses of a different kind of thread, and knit into a subsequent course; substantially as described.

5. Theherein-describedfiguredknitfabric, which contains courses of threads of different kinds, having certain of the loops from a preceding course drawn forward over one or more intervening courses, and. knit into a subsequent course formed of a thread of a different kind from the intervening course or courses; substantially as described.

6. The herein-described figured knit fabric, which contains courses of threads of different kinds, having certain of the loops of a course formed of one kind of thread drawn forward over one or more intervening courses of a different kind of thread and knit into a subsequent course formed of the same kind of thread as the course from which the loops were drawn forward; substantially as described.

7. Theherein-describedfigured knitfabric, which contains courses of threads of different colors, having certain of the loops of a course of a thread of one color drawn over the face of one or more intervening courses of threads of a different color, and knitinto a subsequent course; substantially as described.

8. The hereinbefore-described knit fabric, which contains courses of threads of different kinds, having certain of the loops of a course of one kind of thread drawn forward over one or more intervening courses of a di iferent kind of thread, and knit into a subsequent course, of which the corresponding loops are drawn backward over one or more of the intervening courses of a different kind of thread and into interlooping arrangement with the forwardlyprojecting loops; substantially as described.

9. The herein-described figured knit fabric,

which contains courses of threads of different colors, having certain of the loops of a course formed of one colored thread drawn forward over one or more intervening courses of a different-colored thread, and knit into a subsequent course, and also having certain loops 0 10. A continuously-knit tubular Web, 0011- 5 tain-ing courses knit with threads of different colors, and having certain of the loops formed of one color drawn forward over the face of intervening courses of a diiferent color, and

interlooped into a subsequent course; sub- 40 stantially as described.

11. A continuously-knit seamless stocking, the tubular portion of which contains courses knit with threads of different colors and having certain of the loops formed of one color 45 drawn forward over the face of l intervening courses of a diiferent color, and interlooped into a subsequent course; substantially as described.

EMIL A. IIIRNER.

Witnesses:

D. H. KRATZ,

0. R. B. LEIDY. 

